A Unesco Town While our time in Spain had temporarily come to an end, we were thrilled and excited to be moving on to Portugal. A new country, a river cruise on the Douro River and reuniting with Travel Brendan . We haven’t traveled with him in some five years and it was long overdue! As we live in the days of the world-wide pandemic, we first needed to get tested in order to gain entry into Portugal, which we detailed in our previous blog. We left Toledo, Spain under the cover of darkness and headed for the Madrid airport. During this trip, we will arrive and depart from Madrid a few times, both by air and rail…but not long enough for a visit. That will have to wait for a future trip. The flight was ... read more

Food is everything we are. It's an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It's inseparable from those from the get-go. Anthony Bourdain The day started easy enough in Valencia. We hailed a taxi and headed toward the railway station. We claimed our Prius and slowly pulled away from the lovely city of Valencia and began to familiarize ourselves with the Spanish roadways. Honestly... we've been traveling for a fair number of years and are now absolutely amazed how people navigated before the joys of GPS... and we were those people! The Spanish countryside was dotted with mile after mile of lemon, lime and olive trees. We thought we'd share with you that we took the A-7, to the A-35, to the A-344 to A-31 and ... read more

Not all those who wander are lost” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien It was simply bugging the hell out of us....we would talk about it, imagine it, even attempt to make plans in the hopes that we could travel....somewhere. We've somewhat mollified this urge by taking a few trips within the U.S., but we all know that the great thrill is to leave your own country and go visit one you've never seen before. That's the thing, right? We’ve spent each day for months longing for travel. Attempting to decide if it was safe, if it was the socially responsible thing to do.. …We’ve studied vaccination rates and we’ve studied the U.S. State department website until we exhausted all the information. In the end we selected a country where many residents have been vaccinated -- since we have ... read more

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” – Plato Our latest adventure takes us to a very special place if you're a fan of certain genres of music. We were safely "isolating" on the beach in Florida when the call came in ... would Dave like to work at a pediatric hospital ..... in Memphis? This was too much to pass up, both professionally and because of the special types of music in this city. Memphis is a very special place and is aptly titled the “Home of the Blues” is located in the southwest corner of Tennessee and sits on the mighty Mississippi River. Deep in the heartland of America, rich in history, Memphis is a stone’s throw to both the Arkansas and ... read more

There is no doubt that in our minds, Antarctica makes travel dreams come true. Antarctica is the coldest continent. Antarctica is the driest continent. Antarctica is the windiest continent and we were constantly reminded of that on our trip. Antarctica has a rich history full of brave explorers navigating these waters in days past. Voyages were made by men that seemingly no one in their right mind would attempt. It is the only continent not permanently inhabited. It is all this and so much more....The Antarctic Treaty System was created in 1959 to establish Antarctica as a zone of peace and science. Today, the area is protected, and a great deal of valuable scientific research occurs. People will always question and debate whether visitors should be allowed to visit these areas. Our experience with Quark is ... read more